The Creative Commons License : Is Validity Enough? A Review of Liability and Enforceability in Creative Commons Licensing

A considerable amount of literature has been published on Creative Commons (CC) licensing. There are many short articles which concisely discuss the array of problems that can arise when releasing a work under a CC licence. This paper, on the other hand, aims to provide a thorough and critical analysis of two particular problems. The first is the lack of safeguards for the Licensee in the CC licences. The second is the fact that the terms of the CC licences are not always recognised by the national courts and this can lead to complications regarding the enforceability of the licence. This paper will conclude with a view on where CC now stands and whether the goals that the CC movement set itself ten years ago have been achieved. In order to provide the reader with different sources of information some references will be made to case law and academic commentary from The Netherlands. This is material which is often only available to Dutch speakers and the present writer is of the opinion that sharing insights on CC can be useful and may add to its development